First off, if I were to employ the strategy of auto folding, I'd do it at $25 PLO Hi/Lo. The average pots are bigger therefore, you have a higher percentage of qualifying raked hands.
IMHO, if you purely wish to play for bonus money, I'd still employ the strategy of all in with AA and KK at the $25 NLHE tables. Over the long haul, this will be profitable. But it seems like it makes a lot more sense to at least learn to play a little. You could go all in with AA/KK, play all pocket pairs and fold unless you hit a set and if that works for you, play AK/AQ suited and gamble just a little. That would probably have you playing around 10% of the hands +/- 3%.
Just for the hell of it, I 8 tabled reload bonuses once all at $25 NLHE. I basically followed the strategy above with some modifications (8x pfr with AA, KK, QQ .... played any pocket pair from any position for up to a 3 or 4x pfr, depending on the size of the raisers stack ... AK and AQ). I turned a profit at every table, anywhere from a couple of bucks to $100 or more. I errored on the side of protecting my stack, almost playing weak tight but not quite. But how boring this was. However, the hourly rate was very good.
FWIW, IMHO, if you can't at least average making as much money winning as you do from the bonus, it is a rather silly endeavor. On the average, I have somewhere between a 2:1 to 3:1 ratio of winning/bonus and enjoy the time spent doing it. Everyone has different needs though so to each their own. |